Help

Newsletter

Nude-magazine complaint sends police to frat house

ATHENS - University of Georgia police confiscated nude magazines and disposable cameras Wednesday from seven Chi Phi fraternity members after an anonymous caller complained they were flashing pictures of naked women to passersby at Tate Plaza.

The seven UGA students and a visitor photographed people's reactions as they flashed photos from a magazine dedicated to nude photos of black women, according to a UGA police report.

The men initially denied any fraternity affiliation when police arrived around 3:50 p.m.

"The group also stated that the people they showed the obscene material to did not know what they were being showed until it was already being displayed," according to the report.

Police later met the students at the Chi Phi house, confiscating the cameras and the magazine, according to the report.

Police forwarded the case to UGA Judicial Programs and barred a visitor from campus for 12 months.

Chi Phi chapter president Matthew Hughes told police Wednesday that the fraternity did not tell the students to show the magazine photos to other students, according to the report.

"I and Chi Phi are embarrassed at what occurred," said Matthew Hughes, president of the fraternity that, on the national Chi Phi Web site, refers to "southern heritage" that "instills an element of etiquette, demeanor, and proper social graces into our culture."

Hughes would not say why the students exhibited the pictures. He said fraternity leaders are working with the university and conducting an internal investigation to find out what happened.

The South Lumpkin Street fraternity has run into trouble before. In 1999, Chi Phi was suspended for allegedly providing alcohol to a 19-year-old pledge.

Then, in 2000, the fraternity was cleared of accusations that members of the UGA chapter hazed visiting Georgia Tech pledges in 1998.